I have used paper towel between pans and surface with luck. Not every time but just when I wanted to use bare cast iron.

I've used the silicone mat under a cast iron pan on high on my Bosch. I don't think I've tried it on "boost ".

It is not the power setting that matters, it is the temperature that the pan base is allowed to get to. All silicone mat heating is due to conduction down from the pan. A dry pan on setting 2 could eventually exceed the temperature limit of the silicone. Almost all cooking that I can imagine will not get the pan base to the temperature of failure. Walking away from something cooking that cooks down, or walking away from a high setting used to speed up the heating before lowering the setting can lead to silicone pad damage. Damage is generally seen as darkening and softening.

Circles cut from a silicone mat are all that are needed, and the baking mat thereby supplies a lot of them to make up for occasional inattention by walk-aways and odor-insensitives. Three circles are generally sufficient. Larger circles may be better for heavy pans.

Silicon pads provide two other benefits, protection from scratches on the Ceram, and lower temperatures on the Ceram thereby reducing possible burns.

kas

Kas, thanks for the explanation. I did read about the circles and tripod method on another thread. I tried it last night and it worked out fine.

Planning ahead, one circle and two triangular pieces could provide a Halloween ambience.

k